05/01/2020
Some useful information on fire breaks and asset protection zones (apz).
The best form of defence against fire is limiting fuel, if there is nothing for the fire to take hold in close to your home or shed it is unlikely they’ll be impacted.
First and foremost, rake up leaves and keep the grass short! This includes the leaves in your gutters! These are 3 things that are relatively easy to do and make a big difference, if your a bit lazy mowing the leaves will help but ideally rake them and dispose them. Trimming the grass under post and rail and post and wire fences will likely save them in the case a grassfire comes through and could save thousands in replacement.
Secondly and its one i see all the time gardens along the house or firewood stacked by the house or even under the house. If you’re going to have a garden close to your house it is critical it is well maintained, pull and dispose of weeds and prune any shrubs off the house. Keep the ground clear and while mulch is great for the garden it is a high risk fire threat, mulch can smoulder for day before it ignites.
Fire wood piles while the timber itself is unlikely to ignite from an ember firewood piles almost always are littered with bark, saw dust and kindling/scraps of timber from splitting and these will ignite.
Once you’ve got these things sorted its time to look at the vegetation around your home. Anybody in a bushfire prone area is entitled to clear any tree (>300mm) within 10m of a house or shed and smaller trees, regrowth and scrub out to 50m without council approval. (See first picture)
Fence line can be hard to work out how much you can clear as it works off a different zoning but as a rule 3m at a minimum it some cases more.
Bushfire areas aren’t limited to rural areas there are a lot of urban areas classed as bushfire prone, you can find out if these rules apply to you by typing your address into the rfs website.
If you have trees or scrub that you feel may be a danger in the case of a fire lunderjack is here to help! I am cert 3 arborist and am always available to provide free advice on your vegetation situation! Should you want work done you’ll be given and obligation free quote. We are fully equiped to handle any job big or small with an experienced climber, 4T excavator with mulcher and access to 4wd truck and chipper and stump grinder we have all the equipment and experience to handle any job. Have a look through the attached photos for APZ jobs we’ve done in the past. We are also able to do small dam cleaning and small earthwork jobs. Give us a call on 0413 570 209
Cheers Callum